Magda Gad (; born 17 October 1975) is a Swedish

war correspondent A war correspondent is a journalist who covers stories first-hand from a war, war zone. War correspondence stands as one of journalism's most important and impactful forms. War correspondents operate in the most conflict-ridden parts of the wor ...

and Middle Eastern analyst who writes, photographs and films her stories. She has been a correspondent for the Swedish media outlet ''

Expressen (''The Express'') is one of two nationwide evening newspapers in Sweden. Describing itself as independent liberal, was founded in 1944; its symbol is a wasp and its slogans are "it stings" or " to your rescue". The newspaper awards the cultu ...

'' since 2015. Gad got international recognition in June 2016 when she covered the assault on Mosul in Iraq. She reported on the

war against ISIS Many states began to intervene against the Islamic State, in both the Syrian civil war and the War in Iraq (2013–2017), in response to its rapid territorial gains from its 2014 Northern Iraq offensives, universally condemned executions, hu ...

She has been reporting from Afghanistan since September 2018, and is one of the few western journalists who gained access to the

Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...

before the Taliban's take over in 2021. She stayed in Afghanistan during the take over and was never evacuated. She continues to report from Afghanistan.

Early life

Gad was raised in

Falun Falun () is a city and the seat of Falun Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 37,291 inhabitants in 2010. It is also the capital of Dalarna County. Falun forms, together with Borlänge, a metropolitan area with just over 100,000 inhabit ...

Dalarna County Dalarna County () is a county or '' län'' in central Sweden (Svealand). It borders on the counties of Uppsala, Jämtland, Gävleborg, Västmanland, Örebro and Värmland. It also borders on the Norwegian counties of Hedmark and Trøndelag to ...

, Sweden. Her father worked as a physician and researcher while her mother worked as a dental nurse for an oral surgeon. She studied political science and journalism in Stockholm.

Career

Between 2004 and 2014, Gad worked as a journalist and editor for newspapers such as ''Tidningen Vi'', ''

Läkartidningen ''Läkartidningen'' is a Swedish medical journal A medical journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal that communicates medical information to physicians, other health professionals. Journals that cover many medical specialties are sometime ...

'', ''Modern Psykologi'', ''Café'', ''

Svenska Dagbladet (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily List of Swedish newspapers, newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the 1900s the pap ...

'', ''QX'', and as a feature and news journalist for the newspaper ''

Aftonbladet (, lit. "The evening paper") is a Swedish language, Swedish daily tabloid newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. It is one of the largest daily newspapers in the Nordic countries. History and profile The newspaper was founded by Lar ...

''. She has also written for the humanitarian organization

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF; pronounced ), known in some English-speaking settings as Doctors Without Borders, is a charity that provides humanitarian medical care. It is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) of French origin known for its projects in conflict zo ...

. In 2015, she moved to ''Expressen'' where she has been working as a war correspondent. She also co-founded the investigative journalism platform ''Blankspot.'' Magda Gad hosted an episode of the Swedish radio show ''

Sommar i P1 ''Sommar i P1'' () is one of the most popular shows on Swedish radio. It has been broadcast every summer since 29June 1959, originally as ''Sommar'' on P3 and since 1993 on P1. About Each 90-minute-long programme in the series – which is ...

'' in 2017.

Books

Co-author

* Vi: de bästa texterna, volym 1, 2018 * En annan historia, 2017. * The preface to Denis Mukwege's book "Kvinnors styrka", 2022
32

Awards

* The Zaida Catalán Award (2023). * Honorary Doctorate,

Dalarna University College Dalarna University () is a university college (''högskola'') located in Falun and Borlänge, in Dalarna County, Sweden. Dalarna University is one of Sweden’s more recent institutions of higher education, established in 1977. It is situated i ...

(2023) * Newspaper of the Year Award for Best Photojournalism 2022. * "Professional Woman of the Year" by the international organization Business and Professional Women 2022. * Finalist INMA 2022. * Finalist Swedish Grand Prize for Journalism 2021. *Pennskaftspriset 2021. *Newspaper of the Year Award for Best Picture and Sound 2020. *Digital Educator of the Year Award from Consid AB 2020. * Stig Dagerman Award 2020 * Bronze Medal Award from the Board of Nordic Veterans Foundation 2019. *Finalist the Stockholm Media Week Award in the category Media Personality of the Year 2019. * Voice of the Year Award by Dagens Opinion 2019. *Finalist the Red Cross Journalism Award 2019 for reportage series in Afghanistan. *Finalist Swedish TV Award Kristallen 2019. *

European Newspaper Award European Newspaper Award is a design competition for European newspapers. The competition was founded and organized by newspaper designer Norbert Küpper from Meerbusch, Germany. He co-operates with the journalist magazines '' Medium Magazin'' ( ...

for best War Journalism 2018. * Swedish TV Award

Kristallen Kristallen () is the official annual Swedish television award, administered by the foundation . It was created in 2005 by television producers SVT, TV3, TV4, Kanal 5 and UR. The trophy The award trophy, created by Mårten Claesson, Eero ...

2018. * European Digital Media Awards finalist in Best in Social Media Engagement 2018. * The Swedish Grand Prize for Journalism 2017. * Per Wendel Prize for News Journalist of the Year 2017. *Finalist MEG Award in the category Innovator of the year for innovative war journalism 2017. * Scoop of the Year Award by Faktum 2017. *Finalist Guldspaden Award for reportage series "Utanförskapet inifrån" 2017. * Finalist INMA for "World-class war coverage and interaction on Facebook" 2017. *Finalist Swedish Grand Prize for Journalism 2016. * Silver for Distinguished Writing at

European Press Prize The European Press Prize is a non-profit foundation based in the Netherlands. It runs a programme of journalism awards of the same name for journalists from 46 countries, the Council of Europe, Belarus and Russia. As part of the programme, a jur ...

2016. * The Honor Award by Wendela 2016. * Cordelia Edvardson Award 2016. * Journalist of the Year 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gad, Magda 1975 births People from Falun Living people Swedish women journalists 20th-century Swedish journalists 21st-century Swedish journalists 21st-century Swedish women journalists